By: Evi Fromm

From April 22-26, all three drone teams at BHS –The Hog Flyers, Full Throttle, and The Speed Demonz — traveled to San Diego, California, to compete in the National Drones in Schools competition.

Throughout the year, each team has had to develop a brand, contact sponsors, and gather all the information that the judges and anyone interested in the program could want to know.

“We spent the weeks leading up to the competition coming into school early, and preparing all the individual parts like the drones, display, and tool kits,” sophomore Erin Secody from The Speed Demonz said. “We had to practice our flying skills and build on previous competition feedback to improve our display and marketing video.”

“On the last day, we found a way to fit everything in a suitcase and bring it onto the plane for San Diego,” junior Zac Hansen from Full Throttle said. “Which sadly meant cutting the display in half and having to glue it back together once we made it to the hotel.”

Once at the competition, the teams set up their displays and got ready to compete in the various activities and socialize with all of the people that came out to watch.

“On the first day, judges grade your Display, Trifold, and Design and Engineering,” Hansen said. “Teams also complete time trials for both Head-to-Head and Capture the Flag to create seeding for the double elimination bracket.”

“On day two, the teams compete in two separate brackets,” senior Rylan Carper, team leader of The Hog Flyers, said. “There’s a Capture the Flag bracket where two pilots from each team compete to capture the most beacons by flying over them, and a Head-to-Head where one pilot from each team competes against each other to race around a course.”

After all events concluded, the competition ended with an award ceremony.

All three teams at BHS placed well in the overall group with The Hog Flyers landing first, Full Throttle taking second, and The Speed Demonz earning sixth place.

As the underclassmen teams, Full Throttle and the Speed Demonz are already looking to next year and what they could have done differently this year.

“We ran out of time this year to test some more parts,” Hansen said. “For next year, we have ideas to completely redesign our marketing video and display to a more theme-centered idea.”

With the Hog Flyers graduating, what could be the effects for The BHS Drones In Schools Program?

“Bellbrook may end up seeing even more teams next year!” Carper said. “Beyond the two returning teams, there has been talk of even more, including an all-girls team!”

Sophomores Erin Secody and Katie Pryor have been working on developing the very first all-girl drone team here at BHS.